Path of the Extra

Subjected to their stunned gazes, the robed man knelt before the two girls. Yelena stepped in front of Celestina with pursed lips, her face gone pale and dizzy just from looking at him, and she shuddered again. There was something deeply and unmistakably wrong about this man, something that went beyond ordinary unease.

Lumine began moving, keeping his steps as quiet as he could, circling around behind the man with his sword ready to cut him down the instant the need arose. But the man never acknowledged Lumine’s existence. Not even slightly.

He leaned to one side so he could see past Yelena and look directly at Celestina, who looked back, uncertain.

Then the robed man spoke, softly, with the warmth of someone offering counsel from genuine good will, if indeed such a thing resided somewhere within him.

”You try and wish to chase your own talent, but different seeds bloom at different times.”

Celestina blinked. She said quietly to Yelena to step aside, and Yelena hesitated before doing so, keeping her eyes fixed on the man and her guard fully raised.

”Some with talent move swiftly from being a Dormant to becoming a Master, yet grow stagnant when the time comes to ascend further, struggling to become a Saint. Others labor from the very beginning, stumbling and stalling through the early stages, but once they become a Master they do not stop. They shoot forward like a comet.”

”You know... about my talent..?” Celestina murmured.

”Be patient. And hone yourself.”

Then the robed figure extended his hand, covered in black leather gloves, toward Celestina. Yelena and Lumine both moved at once.

And then something hit them like a tidal wave, and they stopped.

They did not simply hesitate. They froze entirely. Their bodies locked in place and their mouths sealed shut, as though they had been carved into stone mid-motion, fixed in whatever awkward position they had been caught in.

In the space of that single instant, both Lumine and Yelena understood what had happened. It was his mana. The man had used his Aura to immobilize them, and Celestina alone had been left untouched by it. The sheer precision of that control, the surgical exactness required to discriminate between them so cleanly, told them everything they needed to know. They were at least still capable of swallowing, and they did, the realization settling heavily over them that this man existed on a plane entirely beyond their capacity to challenge or overcome.

The Apostle, meanwhile, took hold of the chains binding Celestina and spoke.

”While you pursue talent, you flee from your unique skill. One cannot exist without the other. It is a part of you. Embrace it. Embrace all of you, and your life will know no more restraint.”

He clenched his hands. The chains shattered instantaneously into thousands of pieces, every link disintegrating from their origin all the way to where they bound Celestina’s wrists. She stared at the result in silent shock.

”No matter. You will come to understand, and soon, that to survive you will have no choice but to embrace it.”

Those ominous words still hanging in the air, he rose to his feet. Celestina, still kneeling, felt a sudden and sharp impatience overtake her, and she called out before she could stop herself.

”W-wait! Do not go, I still have questions!”

”Do not worry. Should you survive, we will meet again beyond the doors,” the Apostle of Hunger said, turning and moving toward Jasmine. Lumine could do nothing but make strained, wordless sounds of protest, locked in place and unable to intervene.

”She will wake soon. The only reason she has not yet is because her mind is taxed to the point of exhaustion. That is all.”

Celestina watched him warily as he drew near Jasmine, rubbing her freed wrists and flexing her arms slowly. His words drew a quiet sigh of genuine relief from her. She had been carrying a real and mounting worry about why Jasmine had not yet stirred.

”Thank you,” Celestina said, and she meant it entirely. Then she asked, with careful and tentative softness, ”But... why help us?”

The robed figure turned his head slightly. The darkness where his face should have been shifted, and they could have sworn something moved within it, some subtle and unsettling stir in that void, before his voice came, low and quiet.

”...Because I hate the gods.”

Celestina opened her mouth and closed it again, finding herself, for reasons she could not quite articulate, at a complete loss for words.

Had he not just claimed to be the Apostle of Hunger? That meant he was bound to the God of Hunger in some capacity. Yet he hated the gods. The way Azriel had spoken of them, and now this man, was doing nothing to leave a favorable impression in Celestina’s mind.

”Right.”

He snapped his fingers. At once, Lumine and Yelena were released. They crumpled to their knees, breathing in ragged and heavy pulls, their bodies drenched in sweat. Celestina looked at them with open concern.

”Then this is our farewell for now,” he said finally, and it appeared he was on the verge of departing when Lumine called out after him.

”Wait! I have questions as well! You know, do you not!? Why is any of this happening!? And-”

”I abhor your existence.”

The words were delivered with a cold and absolute flatness. Lumine flinched, and then a feeling crept over him, slow and visceral, as though he had unknowingly stepped to the very edge of a blade.

”The only reason you perceive yourself as receiving my assistance is because of her.” His attention moved to Celestina. ”Without her, I would leave you to die.”

”W-why!?” Lumine’s eyes flew wide open. ”What did I ever-”

”Shut up.”

”Mhm!?”

Lumine’s lips were suddenly pressed together and held there, completely immovable, sealed shut as though fused by something invisible and irresistible.

”They will open again after I leave.”

He said it without looking at Lumine, and then turned his gaze to Celestina instead, holding it there for a few quiet and unhurried seconds. Yelena had crossed the room to Lumine’s side, worry written plainly across her face, while Celestina looked back at the Apostle of Hunger, unsure of what she felt. Then he spoke with something almost resembling amusement.

”I wonder if the day will ever come when your hunger consumes even mine.”

A low and dark chuckle followed. He turned as though to leave, and Celestina, sensing something crucial slipping away, opened her mouth to ask it.

He spoke first.

”I will not tell you my name. Not with the one that roams these tunnels. Even in death, I will not make so grave a mistake.”

Celestina frowned at those cryptic words and blinked.

And then he was simply gone. Not receding into shadow. Not walking out. Gone, as completely and cleanly as though he had never been there at all.

”Goodbye.”

”Wah!”

Celestina spun around. A cold breath and his voice had come from directly beside her ear. But there was no one there. She looked in every direction. Lumine and Yelena had heard it too and were doing the same, their heads turning, finding nothing.

He was gone.

Celestina caught Yelena and Lumine saying something but did not register the words. Her gaze drifted on its own and settled on the broken chains scattered across the ground. Something in her chest swelled and tangled and knotted, and she pressed it all firmly down, turning her face toward Jasmine instead.

...It was time to get out of here.